Biodiversity

Discussion Questions

DNA fingerprinting is often used to identify parts of an unknown body or, in forensic science, to show whether a suspect was at a crime scene. How are fingerprinting and barcoding different in their usefulness for identifying an unknown biological sample?

Currently, DNA from a biological specimen must be sequenced in a laboratory to get its barcode information. In the video, Dr. Janzen uses a plastic comb to represent a future DNA barcode scanner. What are some of the properties that these future barcode scanners will have, according to Dr. Janzen?